stephanie

i think “scandals happen anyways” and “non engineers also suck” are both flimsy arguments, and i don’t agree w/ the default tendency of tech ppl to judge the impact of complex social systems like education by simple quantifiables like scandals prevented or dollars earned

1. at baseline, other eng professions have ethics reqs for a reason. eng is a field where the external impact created per individual worker is big + lasting, and that not being ingrained in the tech mindset is part of why all the software around us is such garbage

2. broader point but why are ppl so against humanities/stem cross-reqs!! taking classes where you’re forced to think differently & work w/ppl who think differently and care about diff things makes you a) better at whatever you do and b) less of a sociopath

3. i’d argue the dragonfly/maven stuff happened mainly bc china + US gov are easy antagonists. what about data issues or sketchy business models or just like, shitty code that makes people’s lives harder? fb engs have great job security and are still there and it’s still a mess

it is also so funny to me that we’re skirting the case for ethics by pointing out that “other ppl do it too” because that’s literally the exact kind of loophole mindset that ethics is supposed to teach you not to have

anyways this got super long oops but yeah would love to catch up in person and discuss if you’re ever in the area bc i don’t think i’ve seen you in years!!

It's hard to talk about this in 280 character chunks, but here's what I'd say: 1) Tech workers, though commonly maligned by the media, are actually unusually committed to doing good. Most really do want to "make the world a better place"!

2) When they screw up, it's not because they were trying to be unethical, but because these are hard problems to think and reason about